Tag: synology

I’ve been using IRC since late 1990’s, and I continue to do so to this day due to it (still) being one of the driving development forces in various open source communities. Especially in Linux development … and some of my acquintances I can only get in touch with via IRC :)

My Setup

On my Synology NAS I run ZNC (IRC bouncer/proxy) to which I connect using various IRC clients (irssi/XChat Azure/AndChat) from various platforms (Linux/Mac/Android). In this case ZNC serves as a gateway and no matter which device/client I connect from, I’m always connected to same IRC servers/chat rooms/settings when I left off.

This is all fine and dandy, but connecting from external networks to ZNC means you will hand in your ZNC credentials in plain text. Which is a problem for me, even thought we’re “only” talking about IRC bouncer/proxy.

Every time I’m outside of my home network, and I need to get something from my Synology NAS, I’m facing the same dillema. Who’s sniffing the network I’m on, and who will I hand over my credentials in plain text using HTTP.

Of course, you can add extra security to your Synology account by using 2 step authentication, or first establishing connection to (preferably private) VPN connection. But even then … footprint of sensitive data you’re leaving behind you is just not worth it.

To resolve this problem, you could get a self-signed SSL certificate, but whole process will cost you time and money. But thanks to good people at Let’s Encrypt, this whole process now takes 15 minutes process and is free!